Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to engage critically with NRA, relying on what Amin called "the analysis of really existing capitalism" in which the relation between the core and periphery transforms.

Paper long abstract:

The study on regionalism has been brought back in mid-1990s with an emphasis on the relation between globalisation and regionalisation. The New Regionalism Approach (NRA) which emerged from this new literature on regionalism has also introduced recent examples within African context (Söderbaum 2004). Samir Amin's early contribution on the discussion underlined two points: "the disappearance of the link between the arena of reproduction and accumulation and that of political and social control" and "the emergence of new dimensions of polarization" (Amin 1999: 76). This paper aims to engage critically with NRA, relying on what Amin called "the analysis of really existing capitalism" in which the relation between the core and periphery transforms. The paper examines infrastructure regionalism in Africa and its relation to spatial implications of the transformations in global economy in order to re-address how African economies integrate in the world economy in unequal relations.